NAA Museum Host 100 Years of Ag Aviation Celebration

A great centennial celebration of ag aviation took place at the National Agricultural Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame in Jackson, Mississippi, last weekend. The museum is part of the Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum.

On Aug. 27, the museum hosted a movie night and showed the 2013 Disney film, Planes, featuring the animated ag aircraft Dusty Crophopper. Afterward, it held a question and answer period for the audience to learn more about the industry from Mississippi ag pilots in attendance.

On Aug. 28, the museum was opened to special guests and ag pilots to tour the renovations of the recent first-phase redesign of the museum. Covington Aircraft Engines brought a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine cutaway showing how the pistons move within the engine to rotate the propeller. AgAir Update, represented by Graham Lavender, showcased its newly donated, cuttingedge digital kiosk of Hall of Fame recipients. At the touch of the screen, museum visitors can learn about the dozens of individuals inducted to the prestigious Hall of Fame and be educated in detail about their substantive contributions to agricultural aviation. Also on display were the educational timeline panels detailing the past 10 decades of agricultural aviation’s historical evolution donated by the National Agricultural Aviation Association.

A special ceremony moderated by Hayes Patrick, the museum’s executive director, included representatives of Mississippi’s congressional delegation (Umesh Sanjanwala with Sen. Cindy Hype-Smith and Jimmie Nichols with U.S. Rep. Michal Guest) and Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industry Director Laura Vollor. NAAA 2021 President Mark Kimmel delivered a superb keynote address summarizing the history of the industry and the many artifacts of the museum representing the industry’s history. He was introduced by NAAA CEO Andrew Moore who also issued a call to action to the audience to continue to positively promote the industry to the public with the abundance of materials developed this year to aid in that promotion, such as the website AgAviation100. com.

Glenn Holloway, Mississippi ag aviator and NAAA Museum Committee chairman, recognized Dick Reade, NAAA’s first president and a 1992 Hall of Fame inductee. Reade passed away earlier this year and bequeathed a $100,000 donation to the museum posthumously. The donation will allow the museum to complete the second and final phase of its redesign. Reade was recognized for his longtime contributions to the museum and the industry and will be remembered with a special plaque at the museum’s entrance. Accepting the plaque was Dennie Stokes of Mid-Continent Aircraft Corp. in Hayti, Missouri.

Courtesy of NAAA